In modern drilling operations, whether in the resource, utility or environmental industries, there presently exist many devices and methods for measuring and determining the composition of geological sites, drill bit environments, and environmental waste sites. There is also a need to keep track of pressure and temperature variations during drilling operations.
In the oil drilling and environmental remediation industries, for example, drilling requires operating through boreholes rather than excavating entire sites and treating contaminated soil above ground. If drilled solids contain toxic or radioactive substances, the cost of drilling increases due to worker safety concerns as well as the need to collect, document, dispose of drill cuttings of rock and other subterranean materials brought to the surface, and to decontaminate drilling equipment. Once a site is characterized, wells are typically drilled in which to position barriers, or to inject or pump out toxic subsurface fluids. Such wells must be drilled horizontally or diagonally, a method called directional drilling. Directional drilling is the process of using a drill bit to drill a borehole in a specific direction to achieve a specific drilling objective. Measurements concerning the drift angle, the azimuth, and tool face orientation all aid in directional drilling. Sensor devices can also be normally utilized in directional drilling operations to characterize a given geological or environmental waste site. A need exists for making evasive sensor measurements during such drilling operations.
Temperature and/or pressure sensors, for example, can be adapted for use in drilling operations. Various sensors are known in the pressure sensing arts. Pressure transducers are well known in the art. One example of a pressure transducer is a device formed with a silicon substrate and an epitaxial layer, which is grown on the substrate and implemented in the context of a solid state device. One of the major problems with such pressure transducer devices is that such devices are not reliable in corrosive, high-pressure and/or high-temperature applications. Measuring pressure in downhole drilling operations utilizing sensing technologies is both expensive and unreliable. A need therefore exists for a low-cost reliable high accuracy pressure measurement device that can be used in downhole drilling operations.